In the technology of process measurements and automation, the measurement of physical parameters of a medium flowing in a pipeline, parameters such as e.g. the mass flow rate, density and/or viscosity, such inline measuring devices, especially Coriolis mass flow measuring devices, are used, which bring about reaction forces in the medium, such as e.g. Coriolis forces corresponding to the mass flow rate, inertial forces corresponding to the density, or frictional forces corresponding to the viscosity, etc., by means of a vibratory measurement pickup inserted into the course of the pipeline carrying the medium and traversed during operation by the medium, and by means of a measurement and operating circuit connected therewith. Derived from these reaction forces, the measuring devices then produce a measurement signal representing the particular mass flow rate, the particular viscosity and/or the particular density of the medium. Inline measuring devices of this type, utilizing a vibratory measurement pickup, as well as their manner of operation, are known per se to those skilled in the art and are described in detail in e.g. WO-A 03/095950, WO-A 03/095949, WO-A 03/076880, WO-A 02/37063, WO-A 01/33174, WO-A 00/57141, WO-A 99/39164, WO-A 98/07009, WO-A 95/16897, WO-A 88/03261, US 2003/0208325, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,691,583, 66 51 51 13, 6,513,393, 6,505,519, 6,006,609, 5,869,770, 5,796,011, 5,616,868, 5,602,346, 5,602,345, 5,531,126, 5,301,557, 5,253,533, 5,218,873, 5,069,074, 4,876,898, 4,733,569, 4,660,421, 4,524,610, 4,491,025, 4,187,721, EP-A 1 291 639, EP-A 1 281 938, EP-A 1 001 254 or EP-A 553 939.
For guiding the medium, the measurement pickups include at least one measuring tube with a straight tube segment held in a, for example, tubular or box-shaped, support frame. For producing the above-mentioned reaction forces during operation, the tube segment is caused to vibrate, driven by an electromechanical exciter arrangement. For registering vibrations of the tube segment, particularly at its inlet and outlet ends, the measurement pickups additionally include an electrophysical sensor arrangement reacting to movements of the tube segment.
In the case of Coriolis mass flow measuring devices, the measurement of the mass flow rate of a medium flowing in a pipeline rests, for example, on having the medium flow through the measuring tube inserted into the pipeline and oscillating during operation laterally to a measuring tube axis, whereby Coriolis forces are induced in the medium. These, in turn, effect that the inlet and outlet end regions of the measuring tube oscillate shifted in phase relative to one another. The magnitude of this phase shift serves as a measure of the mass flow rate. The oscillations of the measuring tube are, to this end, registered by means of two oscillation sensors of the above-mentioned sensor arrangement separated from one another along the length of the measuring tube and are transformed into oscillation measurement signals, from whose phase shift relative to one another the mass flow rate is derived.
Already the above-mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,187,721 mentions, further, that the instantaneous density of the flowing medium can also be measured by means of such inline measuring devices, and, indeed, on the basis of a frequency of at least one of the oscillation measurement signals delivered from the sensor arrangement. Moreover, usually also a temperature of the medium is directly measured in suitable manner, for example by means of a temperature sensor arranged on the measuring tube. Additionally, straight measuring tubes can, as is known, upon being excited to torsional oscillations about a torsional oscillation axis extending essentially parallel to, or coinciding with, the longitudinal axis of the measuring tube, effect that radial shearing forces are produced in the medium as it flows through the tube, whereby significant oscillation energy is withdrawn from the torsional oscillations and dissipated in the medium. As a result of this, a considerable damping of the torsional oscillations of the oscillating measuring tube occurs, so that, additionally, electrical exciting power must be added, in order to maintain the torsional oscillations. On the basis of the electrical exciting power required to maintain the torsional oscillations of the measuring tube, the measurement pickup can also be used to determine, at least approximately, a viscosity of the medium; compare, in this connection also U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,524,610, 5,253,533, 6,006,609 or 6,651,513. It can, consequently, assumed, without more in the following, that, even when not expressly stated, modern inline measuring devices using a vibratory measurement pickup, especially Coriolis mass flow measuring devices, have the ability to measure, in any case, also density, viscosity and/or temperature of the medium, especially since these are always needed anyway in the measurement of mass flow rate for the compensation of measurement errors arising from fluctuating density and/or viscosity of the medium; compare, in this connection, especially the already mentioned U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,513,393, 6,006,609, 5,602,346, WO-A 02/37063, WO-A 99/39164 or also WO-A 00/36379.
In the application of inline measuring devices using a vibratory measurement-pickup, it has, however, become evident, as also discussed, for example, in JP-A 10-281846, WO-A 03/076880, EP-A 1 291 639, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,505,519 or 4,524,610, that, in the case of inhomogeneous media, especially two, or more, phase media, the oscillation measurement signals derived from the oscillations of the measuring tube, especially also the mentioned phase shift, can be subject to fluctuations to a considerable degree and, thus, in some cases, can be completely unusable for the measurement of the desired physical parameters, without the use of auxiliary measures, this in spite of keeping the viscosity and density in the individual phases of the medium, as well as also the mass flow rate, practically constant and/or appropriately taking them into consideration. Such inhomogeneous media can, for example, be liquids, into which, as is e.g. practically unavoidable in dosing or bottling processes, a gas, especially air, present in the pipeline is entrained or out of which a dissolved medium, e.g. carbon dioxide, outgasses and leads to foam formation. As other examples of such inhomogeneous media, emulsions and wet, or saturated, steam can be named. As causes for the fluctuations arising in the measurement of inhomogeneous media by means of vibratory measurement pickups, the following can be noted by way of example: the unilateral clinging or deposit of gas bubbles or solid particles, entrained in liquids, internally on the measuring tube wall, and the so-called “bubble-effect”, where gas bubbles entrained in the liquid act as flow bodies for liquid volumes accelerated transversely to the longitudinal axis of the measuring tube.
While, for decreasing the measurement errors associated with two, or more, phase media, a flow, respectively medium, conditioning preceding the actual flow rate measurement is proposed in WO-A 03/076880, both JP-A 10-281846 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,505,519, for example, describe a correction of the flow rate measurement, especially the mass flow rate measurement, based on the oscillation measurement signals, which correction rests especially on the evaluation of deficits between a highly accurately measured, actual medium density and an apparent medium density determined by means of Coriolis mass flow measuring devices during operation.
In particular, pre-trained, in some cases even adaptive, classifiers of the oscillation measurement signals are proposed for this. The classifiers can, for example, be designed as a Kohonen map or neural network, and the correction is made either on the basis of some few parameters, especially the mass flow rate and the density measured during operation, as well as other features derived therefrom, or also using an interval of the oscillation measurement signals encompassing one or more oscillation periods. The use of such a classifier brings, for example, the advantage that, in comparison to conventional Coriolis mass flow/density meters, no, or only very slight, changes have to be made at the measurement pickup, in terms of mechanical construction, the exciter arrangement or the operating circuit driving such, which are specially adapted for the particular application. However, a considerable disadvantage of such classifiers includes, among others, that, in comparison to conventional Coriolis mass flow measuring devices, considerable changes are required in the area of the measured value production, above all with regards to the analog-to-digital transducer being used and the microprocessors. As, namely, also described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,505,519, required for such a signal evaluation, for example, in the digitizing of the oscillation measurement signals, which can exhibit an oscillation frequency of about 80 Hz, is a sampling rate of about 55 kHz or more, in order to obtain a sufficient accuracy. Stated differently, the oscillation measurement signals have to be samples with a sampling ratio of far above 600:1. Beyond this, also the firmware stored and executed in the digital measurement circuit is correspondingly complex. A further disadvantage of such classifiers is that they must be trained and correspondingly validated for the conditions of measurement actually existing during operation of the measurement pickup, be it regarding the particulars of the installation, the medium to be measured and its usually variable properties, or other factors influencing the accuracy of measurement. Because of the high complexity of the interplay of all these factors, the training and its validation can occur ultimately only on site and individually for each measurement pickup, this in turn meaning a considerable effort for the startup of the measurement pickup. Finally, it has been found, that such classifier algorithms, on the one hand because of the high complexity, on the other because of the fact that usually a corresponding physical-mathematical model with technically relevant or comprehensible parameters is not explicitly present, exhibit a very low transparency and are, consequently, often difficult to explain. Accompanying this situation, it is clear that considerable reservations can occur on the part of the customer, with such acceptance problems especially arising when the classifier, additionally, is self-adapting, for example a neural network.
As a further possibility for getting around the problem of inhomogeneous media, it is proposed, for instance, already in U.S. Pat. No. 4,524,610 to install the measurement pickup such that the straight measuring tube extends essentially vertically, in order to prevent, as much as possible, a deposition of such disturbing, especially gaseous, inhomogeneities. Here, however, one is dealing with a very special solution which cannot always be implemented, without more, in the technology of industrial process measurement. On the one hand, in this case, it can happen, namely, that the pipeline, into which the measurement pickup is to be inserted, might have to be adapted to the measurement pickup, rather than the reverse, which can mean an increased expense for implementing the measurement location. On the other hand, as already mentioned, the measuring tubes might have a curved shape, in which case the problem cannot always be solved satisfactorily by an adapting of the installation orientation anyway. It has, moreover, been found in this case that the aforementioned corruptions of the measurement signal are not necessarily prevented with certainty by the use of a vertically installed, straight measuring tube anyway.